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Woodstock Letters, Volume 97, Number 2, 1 April 1968
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''JESUITS GO HOME: THE ANTI-JESUIT MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1830-1860''
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JESUITS GO HOME: THE ANTI-JESUIT MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1830-1860
Donald F. Crosby, S.J.
in the had old days
“if ever there was a body of men who merited damnation on earth and in Hell it is the society of Loyola’s.” So wrote John Adams in 1816 to his friend Thomas Jefferson. Adams reflected a tradition of anti-Jesuitism which went back to the very foundations of the American nation. Fearing the subversive influence of the Jesuits, the Massachusetts General Court passed a law in 1647, a mere twentyseven years after the establishment of the colony, which was designed to prevent the “secret underminings and solicitations of the Jesuitical order.” 1 Entry of the Jesuits into the colony was strictly prohibited, with violators receiving severe punishment. Feeling against the sons of Loyola ran high throughout the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary periods, reaching a climax in the years 1830 to 1860, an era sometimes called “The Age of No Popery.” The sectional and social conflicts which arose during the administration of Andrew Jackson (1828-1836) spawned a thirty-year period of religious antagonism unparalleled in American history. Anti-Catholic societies and publications flourished, as nativist and Protestant groups organized to break the power of Rome. At least nine anti-Jesuit tracts received wide publicity during this time. One
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